home movies

I love holiday giving. I love coming up with a great gift idea for someone, finding something meaningful and special. One of my all time favorites is the gift we gave my parents this year. We gave it to them this past weekend at the family Christmas party (more on that later) and I've been so excited about it. My sneaky husband was able to steal away a box of old home movies from my parents home and then I spent two weeks converting them to dvd. This was so much fun and I had such a hard time keeping it a secret. I spent a lot of time laughing at myself. Ages 8-16 were not a good look for me. I was a very awkward looking child and side ponytails, fat scrunchies, brightly print leggings and fanny packs were not cute. My husband would watch occasionally and tease (I'm really glad he didn't see these before he married me) and the girls loved to watch with me. On one of these occasions, Butterfly argued with me because she was watching a video of my dad but she was convinced it's her uncle. I hadn't realized how much my brothers look like him and thought her conviction was a lot of fun. I loved watching videos of my grandparents (and great grandparents) that have passed away and found these to be immense treasures. And watching these made me appreciate my mom and dad even more for what wonderful parents they are and how much fun we had growing up. Now being a parent myself, I know how much work it is to take kids on family vacations, go camping, be supportive of our hobbies or simply just put up with high energy chaos. I also feel more now than ever that I want to record my own kids as much as possible so that someday they can have home movies like this too.